The Best USB Car Charger

The best USB car charger for most people and most devices is the Anker PowerDrive 2. We reached this conclusion after testing more than 35 chargers since 2013, including seven new models this year. Packed into this tiny charger is the capability to simultaneously charge two full-size tablets at full speed. It’s also able to differentiate between different devices to deliver the proper charging current to each, something not every charger can do. Though not the absolute smallest or most powerful charger we tested, it has the right balance of all the important features and a good price.

Last Updated:
Six months ago

Anker has replaced our four-port pick with the PowerDrive 4. The company says, “The design has been streamlined but besides that and a colour change, the car charger is the same.” We’ll test the new model to make sure it performs as well as our prior pick, but are confident enough to link to the new model throughout this guide.

10 months ago:
We’ve tested Nonda’s Zus, a “smart” charger with car-locator features, and added it to the Competition section. It works well, but we don’t think most people need to pay extra for what it provides.

One year ago:
For our latest update, we tested four promising new models, and the Anker PowerDrive 2 is our new top pick thanks to its standout combination of features, charging speed, design, and price. Our previous top pick, the Scosche USBC242M ReVolt Dual, is now our runner-up if you need something even smaller.

Two years ago:
Amazon appears to be stocking an older version of our main pick, so we've updated all the buy links for the Scosche to B&H Photo until we get to the bottom of this.

Two years ago:
Anker has informed us that its 40W 5-Port USB Car Charger is being replaced by a newer 50W model. The company is currently selling off its existing stock. We’ll be testing the 50W model when it is available.

Two years ago:
We’ve tested every notable new car charger available, and have found the newer version of our former pick, Scosche’sUSBC242M reVOLT dual ($13), to be the best pick for most people. It automatically adjusts the charging speed based on which device is plugged in, including differentiating between iOS and Android devices. Both of its ports allow for power draw up to 2.4 amps, which means it can charge two full-sized iPads at once. It’s also easy to remove, and has glowing ports that make it easy to plug device in in the dark.

Although it’s small, the PowerDrive 2 is not so tiny that it’s difficult to remove. It handled every device we threw at it, including multiple iPhones, multiple iPads, a OnePlus One, and a Samsung Galaxy S5, charging each at full speed. Though it’s a dual-port charger, the Power Drive’s price is so low that there’s no reason to consider a single-port model. It also comes from a reputable company.

If you’re looking for a smaller charger that almost disappears, this is the one to get.

The Scosche USBC242M ReVolt Dual was our top pick for the past several years, and it’s still a great option if you want a smaller charger. It offers the same charging capacity as the Anker pick, but it’s about three quarters of an inch shorter overall, which may make it more convenient in tighter spots or if you keep it in your bag when traveling. If the Anker model is sold out, the Scosche is a great runner-up.

Most people don’t need to charge four tablets or phones from a single outlet at once, but if you do, this is a great option.

A 4-Port USB Car Charger from Anker is especially helpful when traveling with a full car, as it allows up to four devices to charge at full speed simultaneously, without taking up much more space than the competition.

The best option for phones that support Qualcomm’s fast-charging standard.

If you have a phone that supports Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 and want to take advantage of faster charging speeds, go with the Aukey CC-T8. It packs two ports, each of which supports Quick Charge 3.0 speeds—and is backward-compatible with 2.0, meaning there’s no “wrong” port to connect to.

This quality USB-C car charger adheres to the spec’s standards and has a second port for charging USB-A devices.

The field of USB-C car chargers is still relatively sparse, but among the seven models we tested, Tronsmart’s CCTA is the best for charging your phone on the go. It comes with a permanently attached USB-C cable that allows it to charge at the fastest rate that most mobile devices support, and it has a traditional USB-A port for charging other devices; that port also supports the QuickCharge 3.0 standard.

This is the only charger we tested that you can trust to charge your computer in the car (though at less than full speed).

If you really need to charge your computer in the car, the best option is Verizon’s USB Type-C Car Charger with Fast Charge Technology. It’s capable of charging at up to 27 W (adhering to the USB PD standard). We can’t guarantee it will work with every computer, as USB-C charging is never a sure bet, but in our tests it provided its promised charge rate. (Note that this is slower than the rate at which most USB-C–charging computers can charge, so it won’t be super-fast, but it will work.)

Why you should trust me

I was the accessories editor at iLounge for a little more than three years. During my tenure, I reviewed more than 1,000 products, including numerous charging solutions. I’ve maintained this guide since late 2014, monitoring every noteworthy new charger that makes it to market.

I also consulted with Nathan K., a volunteer with the Top Contributor Program at Google. He’s an independent tester who has worked with Benson Leung, a famed (in these circles) Google engineer who first brought to light potential issues with USB-C accessories. Nathan tests with professional hardware and software, reporting his findings for free. He didn’t have final say on any of our picks, but he did provide useful general guidance on the topic. We also used his guide to suggested peripherals as a starting point in choosing some of the chargers we tested.

Should you upgrade?

Nearly everyone carries a smartphone, tablet, GPS unit, or other USB-powered device in the car, meaning that if you drive, it’s worth having a dedicated USB charger that plugs into your car’s 12-volt accessory outlet (the “cigarette lighter,” for older folks).

Even if your car is recent enough to include a USB port for integrating music playback and phone calls with your car stereo, spending $15 or so for a dedicated charger can be worth it. That’s because the built-in USB port(s) in most cars put out only 1 amp of current, which isn’t enough to charge a tablet or even newer iPhones at full speed: If you’re running an app like Waze or Google Maps, using your car’s USB port may not even charge your phone faster than it uses power, so you can end up at your destination with the same battery level as when you got in the car. Even if your car’s USB port does offer full-speed charging, most cars have only one USB charging port; a charger like our pick lets you charge two or more devices from a single accessory outlet—your family and friends will appreciate that.

Similarly, if you have a USB charger that you bought a couple years ago, it probably puts out only 1 amp—our pick puts out up to 2.4 amps, meaning that upgrading will provide you with faster charge times and the capability to charge tablets and other high-current devices. The same applies if your charger has only a single USB port: We’re living in an multi-device age, so it makes sense to have multiple USB charging ports.

However, if you recently bought a USB charger that provides at least 2 amps from each of its ports, there’s no reason to upgrade. Though you’ll be able to charge your iPad Air slightly faster with our top picks, the difference isn’t big enough to spend more money right now.

Of course, if you have devices that charge using USB-C, you’ll likely want a USB-C charger. All of the USB-A chargers we recommend can charge at up to 12 W, but USB-C phones support 15 W charging, and USB Power Delivery can deliver quite a bit more power over a USB-C port.

How we picked and tested

Just some of the car chargers we tested. Photo: Nick Guy

You’ll find hundreds of USB car chargers that plug into your car’s accessory jack. However, though USB car chargers have become significantly smaller, more powerful, and less expensive over the past few years—just like USB wall chargers—most aren’t worth considering because they don’t have enough power to simultaneously charge two devices at full speed, something even very inexpensive models can now do. These days, a good USB charger for the car should have at least two USB ports capable of providing 2.4 amps each simultaneously (for a total of 4.8 amps). A car charger with these capabilities will let you charge two iPads (or, of course, two other full-size tablets, smartphones, or other USB-powered devices) at speeds comparable to what you’d get from the fastest wall charger.

Many two-port chargers provide only 2.4 amps total, not per port simultaneously, so you need to look at specs carefully. For example, this Satechi charger has a compact design, a good reputation, and can put out 2.4 amps from either USB port, but it provides only a total of 2.4 amps. This means that if you’re charging a phone from one port, you won’t be able to charge a tablet, or even another smartphone, at full speed from the other—the total output is shared across the two ports, so it will take longer to charge each device. Though this may not be a dealbreaker for some people, there’s no reason to accept such a trade-off when similar models that can supply 4.8 amps overall are available for the same price. With this in mind, we didn’t consider anything below 4.8 total amps.

We also dismissed models with permanently attached USB cables, because such a design is so limiting: You can’t swap out the cable to charge different kinds of devices, attach a longer cable, or have any other control over what kind of connections you can use. Most people are better off with the capability to use their own cables, whether those are the cables that came with their devices or third-party Micro-USB and Lightning-to-USB cables. Just as important, if a built-in cable fails, you have to replace the entire package, charger and all.

Finally, after considering the prices and warranty options for available two-port, 4.8-amp USB car chargers, we eliminated almost everything with a price higher than $20.

Photo: Michael Hession

We tested each model in a 2013 Toyota Prius C using a PortaPow USB Power Monitor; we charged an iPad Air, two iPad Air 2 units, a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, an iPhone 6s Plus, a OnePlus One, and a Samsung Galaxy S5. Each of the iPads can draw 2.4 amps of power, and the S5 can draw 1.8 amps. With each charger, we first plugged in a single iPad connected to the power monitor and noted the power draw. Then we connected a second iPad (also connected to a power meter) to see if the charger provided the advertised current to each port simultaneously. For the four-port options, we kept going with the iPads until full. Finally, we swapped out one of the iPads for the OnePlus One and S5 to verify that they were also able to draw the maximum amount of current for each.

Once we had these results, the Wirecutter team had a spirited discussion about the pros and cons of different physical sizes: Is smaller always better, or can a charger be too small? (The answer, based on our discussions and our hands-on testing: Yes, a charger can be too small, and most people don’t need to pay extra, compared with our top pick, for the shortest-that’s-still-practical contender.)

For USB-C chargers, we tried to stick as closely to our previous criteria as we could, but we did make a few exceptions. Most of the noteworthy USB-C chargers we found used permanently attached cables, so we allowed them in this category. While many models had at least two ports (or one port and one permanently attached cable), we did consider one-port chargers because of the limited pool of USB-C contenders. We limited our search to chargers that carry 5 V/3 A over the USB-C connection, because that’s required by the USB-C spec (we go into far more detail here). As a result, we disqualified any chargers that promised Quick Charge over USB-C, since Quick Charge is a nonstandard protocol for USB-C. We tested USB-C connectors with a Nexus 6P, a 13-inch MacBook Pro (2016), and Satechi’s USB-C Multimeter.

The Anker PowerDrive 2 is the best USB car charger for most people. Despite its small size, it provides two USB ports, each of which automatically adjust its output—up to 2.4 amps—to best match the charging requirements of the device connected to that port. The PowerDrive 2 is inexpensive, it comes from a trusted vendor, it’s small enough that it doesn’t jut out too far from your car’s 12-volt power jack, and it has a glowing LED that makes it easier to see the ports in the dark.

The PowerDrive 2’s glowing LED makes it easy to find the ports in the dark, and to indicate that the charger is getting power. Photo: Michael Hession

The PowerDrive 2’s body is made entirely of glossy black or white plastic (depending on the version you purchase) save for the electrical contacts and a red ring around the face. The entire package measures just shy of 2.6 inches from end to end—just a little taller than a credit card–and sticks out a little over an inch from the car’s charging port. The end with the USB ports, which are stacked atop one another, is a circle about the diameter of a quarter.

Once you connect the right charging cable(s) and your device(s), charging starts automatically, and everything we plugged into the PowerDrive 2 charged at the proper rate: A single iPad Air drew 2.4 amps, and so did a second when plugged in. The Galaxy S5 drew 1.8 amps, and the OnePlus One drew 1.9 amps.

It’s not the smallest charger, but the PowerDrive 2 is still quite compact. Photo: Michael Hession

The PowerDrive 2 is compact, with just over an inch exposed when plugged in, but unlike some car chargers (including the Aukey CC-S1 Dual USB Car Charger, which we discuss below), it isn’t so short that it’s difficult to remove. We took it out easily when necessary, yet it’s still small enough that it’s not obtrusive.

We couldn’t find any independent, trustworthy reviews of USB car chargers, but at the time of this writing, Amazon.com shows 3,526 reviews of the PowerDrive 2, with an overall rating of 4.8 out of five stars; 86 percent of those reviews are five stars, though only 2 percent are 1-star reviews, the lowest amount among any comparable chargers we found. Review-analysis site Fakespot says the reviews can be trusted—it considers over 90 percent of them to be high-quality. Anker also has a reputation for stellar customer support, and the PowerDrive 2 includes an 18-month warranty in case anything goes wrong.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Unlike our runner-up pick, below, the Anker PowerDrive 2 doesn’t have illuminated ports. Its LED above the ports provides a bit of illumination, and is potentially less distracting during use, but this does make it a bit more difficult to plug in a cable in the dark than with our runner-up.

If you’re looking for a smaller charger that almost disappears, this is the one to get.

The Scosche USBC242M ReVolt Dual is the next-best pick when it comes to 4.8-amp, dual-port car chargers. It performs just as well as the PowerDrive 2 Dual in terms of both maximum charging speed and automatically adjusting the current to match the connected device(s). The ReVolt is a fine alternative—indeed, it was our previous top pick—but we like the Anker unit a little better, mainly due to the PowerDrive 2’s lower price and a size that makes it slightly easier to remove.

The ReVolt Dual is impressively small—at just shy of two inches, it barely sticks out of the car’s accessory port. (It’s not the smallest we’ve seen, but some of the smaller ones are actually difficult to remove from the accessory jack.) The end with the USB ports is round with two flat edges across from each other; small indentations underneath make it easy to get a grip on the charger to remove it from the power jack. We like that the USB ports glow a mellow blue, making it easy to find them in the dark.

Scosche told us that the ReVolt Dual “features over-voltage, under-voltage, over-current (including short circuit), and over-temperature protection.” We haven’t independently tested these features, although we’ll explore ways to do so in the future.

Most people don’t need to charge four tablets or phones from a single outlet at once, but if you do, this is a great option.

It might seem crazy to some people, but if you really need to charge more than two devices at once in the car, the Anker 4-Port USB Car Charger is a great pick. It puts four USB-charging ports that can handle a total of 9.6 amps in a package that’s of course much larger than the PowerDrive 2 and ReVolt, but still impressively compact.

With a glossy plastic body that’s 3.3 inches long (ports to tip), 1.9 inches tall, and 1.1 inches wide when oriented vertically, the charger is reasonably sized. Its ports are aligned (on a metal cap) in a single row, so you can rotate the charger 90 degrees if a horizontal row better fits your car’s setup.

Not everyone needs to charge four iPads in the car, but it’s good to know you can! Photo: Nick Guy

We connected two iPad Air 2 units, an iPad Air, and a 12.9-inch iPad Pro—each of which can draw 2.4 amps1—to the Anker charger. As we moved our two power monitors from port to port, we saw a consistent power draw from each iPad. A second test with the Galaxy S5 saw that it was drawing the max of 1.8 amps, indicating the proper current adjustment. This charger charged the OnePlus One at a slightly slower rate than the Scosche charger did, however.

Since we tested, Anker has discontinued the 4-Port USB Car Charger, replacing it with the PowerDrive 4, which the company says works the same but has a slightly tweaked shell. We’ve called one in for testing, but we’re confident the changes are minor enough that it’s a safe buy.

A Quick Charge 3.0 pick

The best option for phones that support Qualcomm’s fast-charging standard.

We didn’t originally test chargers that support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 technology, partly because of the then-limited number of supported handsets and partly because USB-C—which supports even faster charging—is going to be more and more common in Android devices going forward. (See our post for more information on this complicated subject). However, enough readers have asked for a recommendation that we took a quick look at the category, and based on our tests using an HTC 10, we think Quick Charge 3.0 technology is pretty great if you’ve got a device that supports it. (We tested Quick Charge 3.0 chargers, as they’re backward-compatible with Quick Charge 2.0.)

We narrowed down our search by finding chargers that had at least two ports, each supporting Quick Charge 3.0. This left us with only two real competitors, the Aukey CC-T8 and iXCC Dual USB Fast Car Charger. Of the two, we like the Aukey CC-T8 better: It’s not the prettiest charger in the world, but it charged at a higher amperage (2.2 amps, compared with 1.5 amps) in our testing. (We think the iXCC model may support only Quick Charge 2.0 speeds, as evidenced by its green-colored ports, which are common among Quick Charge 2.0 accessories. The Aukey has orange ports.)

This quality USB-C car charger adheres to the spec’s standards and has a second port for charging USB-A devices.

The USB-C connector is steadily replacing Micro-USB for charging mobile devices, especially on Android phones. You can charge a USB-C phone from a USB-A port if you have the right cable, but you’ll be able to charge that phone quite a bit more quickly (5 V/3 A) when using an actual USB-C charger. The best charger for these devices is Tronsmart’s CCTA. It hosts a permanently attached USB-C cable and a Quick Charge 3.0 USB-A port, and in our tests it delivered exactly what it promises.

We generally don’t like chargers with “captured” (permanently attached) cables, but in the still-growing field of USB-C chargers, that’s a pretty common feature. The CCTA’s cable is about 40 inches, which should be long enough for most people in most cars. Our testing showed the expected rates in every charging scenario, and the inclusion of a cable makes this charger a better value than competitors that performed as well in our tests but don’t have a cable. However, it’s important that you get the right model: As Nathan K. notes on his list, only the model with ASIN B01LYCC432 on Amazon has the proper overload protection; that’s the version we link to here.

A USB-PD charger that works with computers

This is the only charger we tested that you can trust to charge your computer in the car (though at less than full speed).

If you need to charge a device with higher power draw, such as a laptop, Verizon’s USB Type-C Car Charger with Fast Charge Technology is the only charger we can recommend. It’s quite expensive for a charger, and its only output is a permanently connected USB-C cable, making it a unitasker. But the important thing is that it adheres to the USB PD standard, delivering the right amount of power—up to 27 watts (9 V/3 A)—to the device it’s charging. Among the car chargers Nathan K. has tested, it’s also the only one he recommends that delivers above 15 W. We found it to work as advertised with both a Nexus 6P and our 2016 MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, the Verizon charger’s 27 W output is far below the 61 W that the 13-inch MacBook Pro can take (not to mention the 87 W of the 15-inch model), so charging a MacBook Pro will be slower with this device than with the laptop’s own charger, and you may even see the battery drain if you use the laptop while charging, depending on what you’re doing. But based on our testing, Nathan K.’s testing, and the overall build quality, we recommend it if you have the need for laptop charging in the car.

The competition

Nonda’s Zus is a more-advanced charger that provides information about your car and its whereabouts in addition to powering your devices. It has two 2.4-amp USB ports, both of which accept a USB plug in either orientation. Our tests showed that both ports worked as advertised. Connecting the Zus to your phone via Bluetooth and installing the Zus app unlocks the capability to (relatively accurately) see where your car is parked and how to get there, share the car’s location with family members, monitor the car’s battery health, and, for a fee, track your mileage. Whether these features are valuable is subjective, and the parking locator may be superfluous—some smartphones already offer similar features. (For example, if you have an iPhone running iOS 10 connected to your car via Bluetooth, Maps can automatically note your parking location.) Overall, the Zus offers solid hardware at a reasonable price with some neat tricks, but we don’t think most people need it over the PowerDrive 2.

All but one of the nine two-port, 4.8-amp chargers we tested performed as promised. Small details kept them from earning our top pick, but most of them work fine and would be decent buys if you find one at a substantially lower price than our picks.

The Aukey CC-S1 Dual USB Car Charger was a former runner-up. It’s so impressively small that we actually consider it too small: Though the charger sits flush with most ports, looking like something that’s built into the car, it’s actually difficult to remove. The Scosche charger isn’t that much larger, and is much easier to take out.

The only two-port charger we tested that didn’t not come close to its promised output was the Bracketron EZCharge Dual Pro 4.8A. We like that it lets you connect USB plugs in either direction, but in our tests, it provided only 1 amp of current to each port, even with only one iPad plugged in.

The iClever BoostDrive and iXCC’s four-port charger are direct competitors to Anker’s four-port model; the latter appears to be identical. They work just fine, but Anker’s reputation and customer satisfaction push it to the top. The Aukey 4-Port USB Car Charger, on the other hand, is a bit problematic. Though the company promises 9.6 amps of total output, which should mean 2.4 amps per port, we measured just 2.1 amps per port.

Belkin’s USB-C Car Charger + USB-C Cable costs more than most of the models we tested and has only one charging port, making it a poor value compared with the rest. While we saw full-speed charging, Nathan K.’s tests found charging rates below 1.5 amps. However, he says the connected-equipment warranty makes this one worth considering. The company promises, “If your device is damaged by an electrical charge while properly connected to the charger, Belkin will repair or replace it up to a value of $2,500.”

Anker’s PowerDrive+ 4 is pretty huge, and one of the heaviest car chargers we’ve tested. It’s also more expensive than our pick. It has two 2.4-amp USB-A ports plus a Quick Charge 3.0 port in addition to its USB-C port. Everything worked as expected in our testing, so consider this one if you need all the ports. We think our less-expensive top pick will be better for most people.

Aukey’s CC-Y1 delivered only 5 V/1.5 A over its USB-C port, half what it promises. The CC-Y4 doesn’t have a Quick Charge port but works well otherwise.

Nick Guy is the accessories writer for The Wirecutter, and covers barware and drinking accessories for The Sweethome. He previously served as accessories editor at iLounge, and wrote about cocktails for Serious Eats. His work has appeared on TIME.com, Fast Company, and Tested.com.

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